A woman last Wednesday pleaded with a Malindi court to uphold the life sentence her husband was slammed with for sodomizing her son.
“My husband deserves worse than a life sentence for sodomising my son and destroying his life,” pleaded the woman only identified as Fatma during the hearing of the man’s appeal. “He should rot in jail because he sodomized his step-son.”
She was testifying in a case in which Omar Said Omar, an Islamic Imam, has appealed against a life imprisonment sentence before Malindi Resident Judge Reuben Nyakundi.
She claimed that the imam had destroyed their six-year marriage after committing the heinous unnatural act against the boy, and urged the judge to ensure the boy’s justice is upheld.
He said being the father, the man breached the trust of the boy, who looked upon him for love, protection and help.
She said the boy had developed a phobia for men. “He loves the company of girls and disdains boys and men because of the trauma he suffered when the imam sodomized him,” she added.
“My son’s life is not the same again. Whenever he sees a grown-up man, the boy screams and runs away,” she said while fighting tears.
”I urge the court to deliver the harshest penalty provided for in law to act as a lesson to people like him (Omar),” Fatma said when she was allowed to make her final appeal before the judge closes the case.
Imam Omar was jailed for life in November 2018 by then Malindi Senior Principal Magistrate Sylvia Wewa after she found him guilty of the sexual offence committed in March 2016.
Before his arraignment in court then, resident of Maweni informal settlement where the offence was committed held protests to force his arrest.
On the judgment day, locals and Muslim for Human Rights (MUHURI) officials celebrated the sentence, saying it would be a lesson to other sexual offenders and perpetrators of domestic violence.
But the imam appealed against the magistrate’s decision claiming the court erred in law and fact as it did not consider his evidence.
In his final submission before the judge, Omar pleaded for a lighter sentence since he had reformed and was even preaching in prison.
The judgment will be delivered on February 5, 2020.
By Emmanuel Masha
